It’s unsurprising to me to find out an Israeli wealth man is involved in the allegations made by the UK MP. It’s difficult for my heart to accept that a country so wealth as Congo has been racked in poverty for reasons the common Congolese will never understand. During the Great California Gold Rush, in the 19th century, the community’s dynamics of the natives of California were distorted greatly. For example, wikipedia documents that:

“The human and environmental costs of the Gold Rush were substantial. Native Americans, dependent on traditional hunting, gathering and agriculture, became the victims of starvation, as gravel, silt and toxic chemicals from prospecting operations killed fish and destroyed habitats. The surge in the mining population also resulted in the disappearance of game and food gathering locales as gold camps and other settlements were built amidst them. Later farming spread to supply the camps, taking more land from the use of Native Americans. Starvation often provoked the Native tribes to steal or take by force food and livestock from the miners, increasing miner hostility and provoking retaliation against them.”

Further:

“Native Americans also succumbed in large numbers to introduced diseases such as smallpox, influenza and measles. Some estimates indicate case fatality rates of 80–90% in Native American populations during smallpox epidemics.” and

“By far the most destructive element of the Gold Rush on California Indians was the violence practiced on them by miners and settlers. Miners often saw Native Americans as competition for finding gold or as impediments to their mining activities. Far from women of their own and free from their own justice system, sexual assaults on Native women were quite common. Retribution attacks on solitary miners would result in large scale massacres of Indian populaitons without regard for age or sex by fearful or outraged miners such as the Bloody Island Massacre. As seen in events like the Bridge Gulch Massacre these “attacks of reprisal” often targeted tribes or villages completely innocent of the original act.”

I’m convinced [I haven’t done my research on it myself] that reality in Congo will incur with the realities of the 19th century native americans of California. The only difference between the Congo’s case and the California’s is that the latter had far reaching impacts, not only in America but in the world. The former is black business, allegedly benefiting one man or a few. (Humility cannot be impotent.)

I learn so much by going back to history. And it’s just sad that most of the things we complain about today are the same sort of things that happened many years ago, albeit with a new face.